July 5 (Bloomberg) -- China conducted flight take-offs and
landings on its Liaoning aircraft carrier over nearly a month of
exercises, the first such drills on the vessel as the country
modernizes its military arsenal and extends its reach at sea.

The Liaoning returned to Qingdao port July 3 after the
training mission that involved J-15 fighter jets, the People’s
Daily newspaper said in a front-page article. The Global Times
newspaper posted pictures on its website of the yellow-painted
prototype planes taking off from the Liaoning’s deck.

The exercises were the latest step in a carrier-development
program that has dovetailed with a Chinese push to assert its
sovereignty more aggressively in disputes with Japan, the
Philippines and Vietnam in the East and South China seas. The
Communist Party plans to boost military spending by 10.7 percent
this year as it responds to a concurrent U.S. push for more
influence in the Asia-Pacific.

“It’s all part of a long-term training program,” Richard
Bitzinger, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of
International Studies in Singapore, said by phone. “We are
getting indicators of a long-term intention, decisive intention,
on the part of the Chinese to build up a carrier-based navy.
That’s pretty much irrefutable.”

The program has moved quickly since the Liaoning, built
with the hull of an unfinished Soviet-era ship that China bought
in 1998 from Ukraine, was commissioned in September. In
November, a J-15 jet landed on the carrier for the first time.
Five months later, Rear Admiral Song Xue said China will build
new aircraft carriers bigger than its first.

Regional Tensions

The training occurred as tensions have risen between Japan
and China over East China Sea islands claimed by both sides.
Japan’s government bought the islands, called Senkaku in
Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, from their private owner last
year, sparking protests across China.

China and Russia started their largest-ever joint naval
drills today in the Sea of Japan, the Associated Press reported.
Eighteen surface ships, one submarine, three airplanes, five
ship-launched helicopters and two commando units are taking part
in the exercise that runs through July 12, according to the AP.

Japan expressed “grave concern” to China about the
apparent construction of a gas platform about 26 kilometers (16
miles) west of a line marking the two countries’ exclusive
economic zones, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told
reporters in Tokyo July 3.

China’s Jurisdiction

China has never accepted the “so-called median line,”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a
briefing yesterday. “It’s justified for China to carry out
development activities in waters under China’s jurisdiction,”
Hua said.

The Japan Coast Guard said in an e-mail today it had
observed a Chinese marine survey ship trailing cables through
waters it considers part of its exclusive economic zone around
the southernmost Okinotorishima islets on July 3 and 4. A
coastguard plane attempted to contact the ship via radio but
received no response, it said. These were the first sightings in
that area since 2004, the Sankei newspaper said in a separate
report.

The domestically-produced J-15 is also part of the
modernization process, and can carry weapons including anti-ship, air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, as well as
precision-guided bombs, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

China now has the second-biggest military budget in the
world after the U.S. The country will need several more years
before the Liaoning is fully operational and it learns how to
build its own carriers, according to Bitzinger.

“One carrier is symbolic but if you really want to have an
effective carrier-based force you’ve really got to have two,
three or four,” Bitzinger said. “And building a carrier is
going to be very challenging for them.”